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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471446">Composure</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills'>StrictlyNoFrills</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: Voyager</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, F/M, Gen, I'm a Janetay shipper and you can't stop me, Oneshot, Season 2 Episode 1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 01:13:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471446</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Janeway takes five minutes to react to her crew's decision, and through it all, her first officer is there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chakotay &amp; Kathryn Janeway, pre-Janeway/Chakotay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Composure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm slooooowlyyy working my way through Voyager for the first time, but even though I've only watched it through s2ep1, I'm a staunch Janeway/Chakotay shipper. They just click.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Five minutes. That's all the time Janeway allows herself. </p><p>She'd been fully prepared to be stoic and supportive of whomever among the crew decided to remain behind, but the sight of that empty bay undoes her completely.</p><p>Through it all - the trembling lips, the sniffles, the overflowing tears - Chakotay's strong, steady hand stays gently upon her shoulder. He has seen her injured. He has seen her ill. He has seen her angry and tired and worried and stressed. He has even, once or twice, seen her scared. He has seen her at her absolute worst and her Starfleet best. Still, Janeway knows this is the first time she has allowed him to see her at her most vulnerable, and never once in those five minutes does he give her cause to regret it.</p><p>The moment Janeway regains her composure, she nods and gives her first officer a tremulous smile. He nods back and squeezes her shoulder softly before letting his hand fall to settle gently at his side.</p><p>'What would I do without you?' she almost asks, but she refrains, instead excusing herself to quickly clear her cheeks of any lingering traces of her brief emotional storm before she needs to face the rest of their crew (All 152 of them. Her lip shakes again and she bites it, shaking her head at her own reflection in the bathroom mirror.). She has a fairly good idea of what she would do without her first officer, and it does no good to consider it. For better or worse, Chakotay is with her for this journey to the end, whatever that end might be, and Janeway can only be thankful that come what may, and untenable as the origins of their partnership might have been, she will never have to lead this patchwork crew alone.</p>
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